There is no single shade from any tree on this part of the field, only the waist-high cogon grass haplessly leaving cuts on our now weary legs. This is among the many parts of Sitio Tagamot that once formed a lush thicket of overgrown ipil-ipil trees but have since been turned into level fields to grow corn and other crops that can withstand the sun.

Among the earliest farmers who tilled these lands and made this place their home was my Lolo Melanio. He was just sixteen when he came here from Negros Occidental, all too eager to leave his poverty-stricken hometown and explore the world. He found his way here to Davao Oriental to work in an illegal logging business back in the 1950s. Two years after hauling ginormous lawaan wood that was later sold to be turned into furniture, he fell in love.

• Tags: fiction, Issue 34, Marbin Gesher Jay S. Deniega, Philippines